The PLA at Home and Abroad - Strategic Studies Institute - U.S. Army

CHAPTER 2
THE PEOPLE’S LIBERATION ARMY
AND THE CHANGING GLOBAL SECURITY
LANDSCAPE
INTRODUCTION
Paul H. B. Godwin
This chapter assesses People’s Liberation Army
(PLA) views on the roles and responsibilities of the
armed forces in China’s changing global security landscape.
It does so by focusing primarily on the years
since December 2004, when at an expanded meeting
of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) Central Military
Commission (CMC) Chairman Hu Jintao revised
the armed forces’ “historic missions.” It was at this
meeting that Hu Jintao stressed the “diversified military
tasks” required by the PLA to respond effectively
to the changes in China’s security environment and
provide more extensive support for Beijing’s foreign
policy.
Hu Jintao’s revisions broadened and extended PLA
missions in two ways. First, they expanded the PLA’s
defense mission beyond defending China’s international
borders and territorial claims. This process had
been underway for some years, but as CMC Chairman,
Hu Jintao provided the authoritative source for
continuing and extending this process. Second, they
placed greater importance on the PLA’s nonwar roles
and responsibilities than had previously been the
case. 1 In essence, Hu Jintao directed the PLA’s roles
and missions be adjusted to the growing complexities
of China’s interaction with the 21st century world.
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